Live Antarctica Trip Report

[Something Fishy]

did you hit the call button?

Didn't bother

[Something Fishy]

Trip Summary

Kosher Horizons Antarctica by the numbers:

Planning time: Nearly 2 years
Emails to One Ocean Expeditions: 1804
Food and drinks loaded: ~3 tons
Meals prepared: 1989
Bottles of wine drank: 246
Chanukah candles lit: 396


Group size: 51
Guests from: 12 cities on 4 continents


Trip length (mine): 16 days
Trip length (group): 12 days
Banged head (mine): 3708 times (possibly more but I'm a bit hazy on that)


Significant destinations visited: 16

1	Buenos Aires	Argentina
2	Ushuaia	Argentina
3	Tierra del Fuego National Park	Argentina
4	Beagle Channel	Argentina/Chile
5	Stanley	Falkland Islands
6	Gypsy Cove	Falkland Islands
7	Whalebone Cove	Falkland Islands
8	Drake Passage	Southern Ocean
9	Penguin Island	South Shetlands
10	Cuverville Island	Antarctica
11	Wilhelmina Bay	Antarctica
12	Paradise Harbor	Antarctica
13	Almirante Brown Base (Argentina)	Antarctica
14	Waterboat Point	Antarctica
15	González Videla Base (Chile)	Antarctica
16	Gerlache Strait	Antarctica

Passport stamps collected: 5

Argentina	Buenos Aires	Immigration - Entry
Argentina	Fin del Mundo	Souvenir
Falkland Islands	Stanley	Immigration - Visit
Chilean Antarctic Territory	González Videla Base	Immigration - Visit
Argentina	Buenos Aires	Immigration - Exit

Miles flown (personally): 13,869

PHL-MIA-EZE AA J 763, AA F 77W
AEP-USH-AEP LA Y+ 320, AR F 738
EZE-MIA-EWR AA J 77W, AA F 738




Miles sailed: 2640




Wildlife species seen: 50
Birds: 44
Marine mammals: 6

Wildlife numbers seen: ~26263
Birds: ~26236
Marine mammals: 27

Birds:

#	Family	Species	Number
1	Albatross	Black-Browed Albatross	~100
2	Albatross	Gray-Headed Albatross	1
3	Albatross	Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross	~50
4	Albatross	Wandering Albatross	1
5	Caracras	Chimango Caracara	1
6	Cinclodes	Dark-Bellied Cinclodes	1
7	Cormorants	Antarctic Shag	53
8	Cormorants	Imperial Shag	1
9	Cormorants	Rock Shag	21
10	Dotterels	Rufous-Chested Dotterel	2
11	Ducks	Crested Duck	4
12	Ducks	Falklands Flightless Steamer Duck	2
13	Ducks	Flying Steamer Duck	1
14	Finches	Gray-Hooded Sierra-Finch	1
15	Geese	Kelp Goose	1
16	Geese	Ruddy-Headed Goose	1
17	Geese	Upland Goose	8
18	Grebes	Great Grebe	1
19	Ground-Tyrants	Dark-Faced Ground-Tyrant	3
20	Gulls	Dolphin Gull	3
21	Gulls	Kelp Gull	5
22	Herons	Black-Crowned Night Heron	10
23	Meadowlarks	Long-Tailed Meadowlark	1
24	Oystercatchers	Magellanic Oystercatcher	1
25	Penguins	Adélie Penguin	4
26	Penguins	Chinstrap Penguin	~3000
27	Penguins	Gentoo Penguin	~22501
28	Penguins	Magellanic Penguin	~200
29	Petrels	Cape Petrel	~102
30	Petrels	Northern Giant-Petrel	1
31	Petrels	Southern Giant-Petrel	~100
32	Petrels	Wilson's Storm-Petrel	11
33	Pitpits	Correndera Pipit	1
34	Sheathbills	Pale-Faced (Snowy) Sheathbill	4
35	Siskins	Black-Chinned Siskin	3
36	Skuas	Brown Skua	5
37	Sparrows	Rufous-Collared Sparrow	1
38	Swallows	Chilean Swallow	1
39	Swans	Black-necked Swan	1
40	Terns	Antarctic Tern	20
41	Terns	Arctic Tern	5
42	Thrushes	Austral Thrush	1
43	Vultures	Turkey Vulture	1
44	Wrens	Grass Wren	1
		Total	~26236

Marine Mammals:

#	Family	Species	Number
1	Seals	Crabeater Seal	3
2	Seals	Southern Elephant Seal	4
3	Seals	Weddel Seal	4
4	Whales	Antarctic Minke Whale	1
5	Whales	Humpback Whale	13
6	Whales	Orca	2
		Total	27

For a more detailed wildlife list, check out the spreadsheet here.

[yelped]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-falklands-germany-idUSKBN29R2KB

[Something Fishy]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-falklands-germany-idUSKBN29R2KB

ALOL at the sequence of events here.

1. Lufthansa needs the ability to divert to Argentinean airports if needed on their one-off flight.
2. Argentina's airports are completely shut to international travel.
3. Lufthansa sweet-talks Argentina into getting what they want, by telling Argentina what they want to hear.
4. Argentina declares that this constitutes an official German recognition of their claims against Britain.

Talk about a pilpul .

[Something Fishy]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews-science/king-penguin-captivates-world-its-rare-dandelion-colored-plumage-180977070/

Meh, been there, done that!

Here's an extremely rare sight: a white penguin. This is caused by leucism, similar to albinism:

(Yellow, white, iceberg, Goldberg)

[AsherO]

(Yellow, white, iceberg, Goldberg)

Don't you know that in Antarctica it's pronounced Coldberg?

[EliJelly]

Same causation but com'on, the yellow is striking! more eye-catching than bleached black.

[tavster]

https://onemileatatime.com/icelandair-flying-to-antarctica/

[Something Fishy]

Thursday, December 6 - Shabbos, December 8 (Pre-Trip)

The trip to the end of the world began with a slightly annoying drive to Philly, but such is the bane of award availability.

Quick flight down to MIA on a 763 with lay-flat seats and a stunning sunset for entertainment:



Airplane lavs and me do not have a healthy relationship:



Landing in MIA:



Since I was in F for the next flight down to Argentina, I had access to AA's Flagship Dining. I had reached out to them before to find out about kosher food, but didn't get anywhere.

Figured I'd walk in and see what's up - and they we more than happy to seat me and offer some pre-packed meal options. I went with the salisbury steak, which was kinda tasty but nothing amazing.

Overall I was quite impressed with the restaurant, and the staff were extremely helpful and quite familiar with the kosher rules.

After "dinner" I went back into the main lounge where I met up with the first couple of people from our group and got to know each other. As we were leaving for the plane, Dan came running in like a hurricane and practically knocked twelve people over on his way to the shower.... somehow he made the flight in the end.

This was AA's 77W, so it had their flagship F seat. For someone of my size, the difference in cost between J and F is definitely worth it on a long overnight flight, so I splurged:







The seat is not terribly exciting, but it definitely had lots more room than J and I ended up getting a good night's sleep.

The crew, on the other hand, was simply obnoxious. I actually got shouted at twice for daring to step into the J cabin to speak to Dan. And whoever heard of an FA refusing to get an F passenger a cold glass of water because quote "you still have some left in the water bottle over there" Anyway....

Position equator; heading exactly 180° - my first time in the southern hemisphere:



Landing in Buenos Aires after a good night's sleep, I saw that @Moishebatchy landed safely on Air Europa:



Immigration was an absolute zoo:



It took us the better part of an hour, but finally:



Got a bunch of cabs for out couple hundred suitcases:





Our driver really, really didn't care about the speed limit:



Driving down the widest street in the world, 9 de Julio Avenue. It sounds a lot cooler than it is:



Park Hyatt Buenos Aires:


(Photo credit @Dan)



I think my long-standing dislike for hotels is well-known here (give me a locally-flavored Airbnb any day of the week), but this hotel took that up a notch . Way too fancy, while not adding anything of value to my stay (I'm sure @Dan would disagree with this lol).

No thank you, sir, I'd way rather open that door myself than walk awkwardly through while you hold it for me wearing a big fake smile.

Just not my style I suppose.

Anyway, no time to dawdle - time to explore Buenos Aires!

First stop - gelato time!



Talk about being spoiled for choice:


(Photo credit @Dan)

Tiny hole in the wall place, but this is definitely a unique way to wait for your order:


(Photo credit @Dan)

Holy cannoli. Passion fruit gelato. I think I reordered that four times:



It's worth it to fly down to BA, eat a gallon of this stuff, and fly back home.



Next stop: Abasto Shopping Mall:

DSC_0742 by Morris  Hersko, on Flickr

Why? For this rare bird:


(Photo credit @Dan)

The only kosher McDonald's on earth. Why get lunch at a normal restaurant - of which Buenos Aires has plenty - when you can have terrible food but a unique experience?

And the food did not disappoint - it tasted just as terrible as we expected it to. The Big Mac tasted like cardboard. The McNuggets tasted like cardboard. The McFries tasted like salty cardboard (we're making progress here). The McKetchup and McCoke tasted like they McWere supposed to. And the McTotal was cheap:






(Photo credit @Dan)

After lunch we stopped at Kokosh Bakery for some Shabbos treats.

I've wanted to try baklava for a while but never got the chance, so when I saw they had some on display I grabbed a couple pieces. Maybe Argentinians just aren't very good at baking Turkish desserts, or maybe baklava just isn't that tasty, but I was very quickly cured of my baklava taavos.

Back to the hotel to prepare for Shabbos with a cold can of Antarctica:



Shabbos reading - seems like great minds think alike:


(Photo credit @Dan)

Chabad of Ricoleta is just a short walk from the Hyatt:


(Photo credit @Dan)

We walked over before Shabbos with enough time to say hello to the shaliach and light the Chanukkah candles, and then it was time for a wonderful davening and Shabbos seuda. The place was packed, with 14 people from our group, other guests, and community members. A great time was had by all.

Davening on Shabbos morning featured the loudest mi shebeirachs ever heard in the western hemisphere (BOORECH ATEEEEEE!), and another lovely seuda.

Shabbos afternoon we took a nice long walk around town, and ended up next to the Recoleta Cemetery. This is supposedly a world-famous site, and we had heard rumors of moranos buried here by the Inquisition underneath the cross but with a magen david added years later. We figured we'll see if we can find them and say a kapittel tehillim at their kever.

We searched and searched - and even asked a few of the tour guides around - but no one know where these Jews were buried. In the end we found two Jewish kevarim - thankfully without any crosses on them - so we felt it wasn't in vain.

Overall the place is quite creepy. Most of the tombs are above ground with open sides or windows, and we saw enough human skeletons to last a lifetime. I'm not entirely convinced is was an appropriate Shabbos activity, but hopefully we accomplished something for some Jewish souls.

On Motzei Shabbos we went to Milk & Co. Started out kinda weird - never saw something like this on a restaurant table before:



Overall the food was kinda shvach, but then again I'm not a big fan of milchig restaurants. The desserts were fantastic though, especially the citric cheesecake:



After melava malka it was early to bed - tomorrow we were off to Ushuaia and the official trip was beginning - all detailed in the rest of the trip report beginning here.

[Something Fishy]

Aaaaand this trip report is finally done.

[yesitsme]

Thank You!

[Yehoshua]

Aaaaand this trip report is finally done.

Yay!! Thank you!

[Something Fishy]

You guys sound relieved

[AsherO]

You guys sound relieved

You’re projecting.

I mean, ngl we’re glad the cause for envy is over, it was becoming too much

[yesitsme]

You guys sound relieved

BH the campaign is working, another TR completed

[lakewood34]

AWESOME JOB AS USUAL 
thank you for taking the time to write it

out of curiousity
i thought f only gets you 2 suitcases and isn't luggage above that really expensive?

[Something Fishy]

out of curiousity
i thought f only gets you 2 suitcases and isn't luggage above that really expensive?

You think running a tour to Antarctica for 50 people is cheap ?

[Joeymc]

On Motzei Shabbos we went to Milk & Co. Started out kinda weird - never saw something like this on a restaurant table before:

is that USD?

[AsherO]

is that USD?

Nope It's confusing because the Peso uses the $ symbol as well

https://www.google.com/search?q=480+ARS+in+USD

[Dan]

Nope It's confusing because the Peso uses the $ symbol as well

https://www.google.com/search?q=480+ARS+in+USD

Even less:
https://bluedollar.net/informal-rate/

Great bang for your buck in AR